Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos is buying The Washington Post. Here’s a memo sent Monday to readers from Katharine Weymouth, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post. A separate memo to staff was attached to this memo.

“Dear readers:

“This is a day that my family and I never expected to come. The Washington Post Company is selling the newspaper it has owned and nurtured for eight decades.

“In addition to The Washington Post, the company is selling Greater Washington Publishing, the Gazette newspapers, Express, El Tiempo Latino and Robinson Terminal.

“The buyer is one of America’s great innovators and most respected business leaders, Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer and founder of Amazon.com. Mr. Bezos is making this acquisition in his personal capacity and not as part of Amazon.

“The board of our parent corporation, including my uncle and company chairman Don Graham, made this decision with a heavy heart but with an absolute conviction that Mr. Bezos’ ownership represents a unique and extraordinary opportunity for The Washington Post and for you, our readers.

“In Mr. Bezos we have found an owner who will continue the tradition that the Graham family started with the purchase of The Washington Post by Eugene Meyer in 1933. Since then, and most especially over the past four decades, The Washington Post has earned a worldwide reputation for tough, penetrating, insightful, and indispensable journalism. With the investment by Mr. Bezos, that tradition will continue.

“Mr. Bezos is widely known, of course, as the founder and CEO of Amazon.com. He is a proven entrepreneur who, like the Graham family and this company, takes the long-term view in his investments. While he expects The Post to remain profitable, his focus is on the essential role that our journalism has on dialogue and the flow of information in our society.

“Mr. Bezos knows as well as anyone the opportunities that come with revolutionary technology when we understand how to make the most of it. Under his ownership and with his management savvy, we will be able to accelerate the pace and quality of innovation.

“Mr. Bezos has asked that I remain as Publisher and CEO of The Post. I am honored to continue in that role. Our mission does not change. Nor do the values that have been at the core of The Post’s enduring strength over many decades. Mr. Bezos shares the principles that have guided the Graham family’s proud stewardship of this great news organization. …

“With Mr. Bezos as our owner, we enter a new era and embrace an exciting future. I look forward to it, and I firmly believe you should as well.

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